BitConnect Review, The Bitcoin Craze Continues

Most people have heard about Bitcoin, but BitConnect is probably a new name for you. Many cry scam when something comes out that they do not understand, and I am always on the lookout for new ways of generating a passive income online. Why passive income? Passive income is the dream. Simply logging into a site and withdrawing your profits is the dream of many an online entrepreneur.

With this dream however comes a large number of questionable and less than ethical services which also claim to offer just that. One such site which was very recently brought to my attention is BitConnect. Initially, I set out to carry out a standard review but once I began to dig a little deeper, it became clear that BitConnect warranted more than this,

As you can probably tell from the name, BitConnect is a part of the increasingly popular crypto currency craze. For those who aren’t aware of this term, a crypto currency is a form of currency which exists solely online. These have become massively popular in recent years as their value has grown exponentially with Bitcoin currently being the best known and most valuable.

Interestingly, this growth is only linked to the intrinsic value which is placed upon it by those who are buying the currencies.

The scope of different services that have sprung up in the wake of this increasing popularity is massive. As such, I have watched companies spring up that promise to show you how to trade bitcoins, how to mine bitcoins, how you can invest in bitcoins for the future, collectives and so on and so forth. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the business that surrounds bitcoins is now probably worth more than the value of the coins themselves.

Truth be told, the industry that has been built around Bitcoin as a brand is rife for scamming and there are a number of reasons for this which I will explore over the course of this article. Of course, that isn’t to say that BitConnect is a scam product.

In fact, at the time of writing this I know that a number of people are making money from the service. The smart ones amongst them are willing to accept that this revenue stream may collapse in the immediate future.

Now that I have painted a picture of how I have come to find BitConnect, I want to get down to the nitty gritty. This may turn out to be rather substantial, but truth be told I am yet to find a website that has really got in depth on the subject of BitConnect.

A Brief History of BitConnect and Why It Has to be Brief

In early February 2016, the domain Bitconnect.co was registered. This was carried out entirely anonymously and the website registrant continues to remain anonymous. That is about all that your brief history of BitConnect can include, largely down to the fact that this is all the information that I am able to dig up.

I would at this point love to say that having explored around I am not the only one who has struggled to tie down information on BitConnect.

If there were any one place where I wanted to start highlighting the vulnerabilities that BitConnect has in terms of its legitimacy, this is as good a place as any. There is some speculation surrounding who may be behind BitConnect including listings on company house, but these aren’t explicitly tied to BitConnect either.

The only thing that is of note in the very brief history of BitConnect lies in the relatively recent past which is an expansion of the service from UK and American audiences to also include a large quantity of Asian versions of BitConnect. This includes Vietnam, Indonesia and South Korea.

This is what the website claims:

What is bitconnect?

A self regulated Financial system

BitConnect is an open source all in one bitcoin and crypto community platform designed to provide multiple investment opportunities with cryptocurrency education where it is entirely possible to find the independence we all desire, in a community of like-minded, freedom loving individuals who, like you, are seeking the possibility of income stability in a very unstable world.

What is BitConnect All About?

With the worrying lack of history covered, I feel that it is important to look at what exactly you are getting yourself into with BitConnect. There is rather a lot of ground to cover here and many of the services which are offered by BitConnect deserve a detailed look under their own header. With that in mind, I don’t want to go into too much detail, but instead provide an overall summary of what is available.

Now I must say at this stage, that trying to view the BitConnect website immediately started to flag on my MalwareBytes software as a problem:

So the above was a red flag immediately, as I have found MalwareBytes over the years to be highly reliable is weeding out websites that have flaws. But let’s continue with this review…

The BitConnect website perhaps best tells the story of what you are getting with BitConnect referring to it as a self regulated financial system. Whilst I can’t help but feel that this is supposed to reassure, I find it to be massively concerning for more reasons than I care to list. I will however get to these over the course of this article.

Truthfully, the website for BitConnect isn’t very clear about things here and I cannot find anywhere near all the information that should be available so stick with me here. BitConnect say that they have a number of different coin supply channels. This includes mining coins (which is the same process as any crypto currency mining operation). It also appears that when you purchase BitConnect, they release coins for you to use.

This isn’t explicitly stated, but is rather implied at various points.

Let’s allow the website to say what it is all about, as this is what it states on the BitConnect website:

BitConnect is also bitcoin and cryptocurrency news site that allows you to keep up to date with new businesses that accepts bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and bitcoin regulations news. We also report on latest crypto currency news, prices, talks and new start up related to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

There is also a coin demand channel which includes the lending platform and once again, the staking comes into play here. Presumably (but again, never explicitly stated), it appears that as demand increases, more BitConnect coins are simply pumped into the “ecosystem”. There is also the concept of lending which I have gone into greater detail about below.

What is interesting is that I don’t see how lending increases demand of BitConnect coins as it appears to me that you are pumping more into the market

Finally, there is the BitConnect coin distribution channel. This is simply a self contained exchange in which you can buy and sell BitConnect coins.

In terms of how you make money through BitConnect, there are 5 core ways each of which will get a detailed review. For now however, I simply wish to provide a rough approximation of what you can expect as a BitConnect user. Once again, I wish to highlight that there is very little clear information on this side of things which remains a key concern.

The first method of monetising BitConnect is to literally just purchase some coins. When you make a deposit into BitConnect, the service will supposedly make consistent returns through the price of coins simply going up. This is the crux of the passive income that I have discussed before now and is most likely what the majority of bettors will be aiming to achieve with BitConnect.

Secondly, we have the lending arm of BitConnect. This isn’t really lending in any traditional sense of the word. Instead when you “lend” to BitConnect, you are really opening some of your accounts up to a trading bot. This supposedly trades on the volatility of the BitConnect market and is used to boost the profits that you make through method one.

The third method that BitConnect uses is straight up trading. This involves purchasing your own BitConnect coins and trading them on an exchange. This is arguably the most traditional way of using the BitConnect platform to generate a profit.

There is also the option to mine BitConnect coins. This can be done simply by using your CPU/GPU which means that theoretically, it can be used on any home computer.

Finally, there is a multilevel marketing aspect to BitConnect as well. This is something which isn’t really discussed in the sales material however I know from research that this is in place.

Obviously, all of these different methods are interchangeable, and you can use as many of them as you want. If you believe what BitConnect say, if you want to maximise your profits then you should look to combine as many of these different methods as possible.

I would like to have a bit of a final word on BitConnect here before I try to decipher what passes for information on the service. Truth be told there is very little about BitConnect that is concrete.

The English of whoever is behind the service is atrocious with a large number of mistakes that range from typos to grammatical phrasing that seems to change what is supposedly on offer. Truth be told, I think that this is in part an attempt to clearly obfuscate information and make it difficult to understand exactly what you are getting. That way, it is harder for BitConnect to be held accountable.

Investing in BitConnect

As I have mentioned, the core premise behind BitConnect is simple. You leave them with your money and in return, you get dividends paid out on a regular basis. BitConnect say that “the moment you acquire BitConnect coin it becomes an interest bearing asset”. This sounds fantastic and as I have mentioned is in many ways the ideal platform for those who are looking for a passive form of income.

There is however a lot going on behind the scenes of BitConnect that make me question how legitimate this all really is. The sales material says that all that you have to do is pay into your BitConnect wallet and this is enough. This is all well and good, except that you essentially buy BitConnect with Bitcoin.

This means that the developers of BitConnect are selling you their own product in exchange for a much more tangible asset. This would be akin to buying Disney Dollars as a financial investment.

It isn’t difficult to see how an economy which is controlled by the sole creators of the currency is a risky investment. Especially when you consider the terms of depositing your Bitcoin in exchange for BitConnect coins. To quote the BitConnect website:

“You will receive daily profit based on your investment option. Upon investment term completion you will receive your CAPITAL BACK to take out from the BitConnect lending platform or optionally reinvest back in lending platform to continue receiving daily profit”.

Reading through this there are a few things that stand out here. The most important is that you can only get your investment capital back after an allotted amount of time. This means that any money that you invest in BitConnect is tied up with them for a length of time dictated by them. I have said it before now, but I cannot stress enough.

Any investment which doesn’t allow you an option to withdraw your investment capital or sell on your assets, especially when it is for something as intangible as BitConnect, is not an investment worth making.

BitConnect on YouTube

I had to put a section here about the affiliate marketers who are promoting BitConnect on youtube. And as with any product, even if it does not work as advertised, you will get affiliate marketers saying it does. Here is a section (an image) of just some of the claims on YouTube:

Some quite crazy claims as you can see, so let’s see a video which shows an entirely different angle on this:

Lending

Lending is a very strange concept in BitConnect. The sales material says the following:

“You can invest BitConnect coin in Bitconnect lending platform exclusively from the BitConnect Dashboard. This investment option involves profiting from Bitconnect trading bot and volatility software. You will receive daily profit based on your investment option.

Upon investment term completion, you will receive your CAPITAL BACK to take out from the Bitconnect lending platform or optionally reinvest back in lending platform to continue receiving daily profit.”

This is essentially what simply owning some BitConnect coins does as well, the difference apparently being that you are choosing to incest your current BitConnect coins in order to boost your return on investment. Really though, as you can see above there is that seeming attempt to obfuscate information again.

This did however lead me to the BitConnect volatility software. Using this supposedly provides a safe way to earn a high rate of return on your investment. There is supposedly a guaranteed interest rate in place, however this is also calculated by the BitConnect price volatility software?

What this actually appears to mean is that your investment is subject to a rate of interest which is determined by tracking the volatility of Bitcoin vs USD and the volatility of the USD against “major world currencies”. In 365 days, this has supposedly never been a negative number.

From what little I can gather I stand by the assumption that this is an extension of the core staking service. It simply happens that you choose how much of your assets you choose to leverage in order to increase your returns.

Trading

The trading aspect of BitConnect is welcomingly straightforward. You are able to buy and sell BitConnect coins as you please in line with the self contained BitConnect exchange. From what I have seen and can fathom, this is one of the more convenient ways of transferring your BitConnect coins directly into Bitcoins. It is important to keep in mind however that there has to be somebody looking to buy your BitConnect coins first.

Mining for Bitcoin Currency

For those who don’t now, mining a cryptocurrency works by getting your computer to make large numbers of calculations that unlock small amounts of said currency. To successfully mine Bitcoin now there are companies that employ massive server farms which have been constructed solely to focus on this task. These work 24/7 in order to successfully mine coins. This is important to create some context as mining with BitConnect simply requires a home computer.

Not surprisingly I you want to mine these coins you have join a pool of other miners. This is common place however what is less common is the fact that one of the required mining pools that you have to connect to is operated by BitConnect. This type of approach is seen everywhere with BitConnect seemingly wanting to manage all aspects of the economic value of their coins.

Multi Level Marketing

On top of all these different ways of making money through BitConnect, there is of course a multi level marketing aspect. This is sold as you having an affiliate status but truthfully, you are recruiting new people to bring new money into BitConnect. Interestingly, in order to be an affiliate, you have to be actively lending with BitConnect.

This is supposedly because you “earn bitcoins from lenders you refer through your affiliate link”. In other words, you have to have people signed up and paying into the lending pool in order to get paid anything.

There doesn’t appear to be any direct downlines with BitConnect however I have seen people who use it talking about being several levels deep with affiliates. This suggests to me that this is definitely a thing.

This All Sounds a Bit Suspicious Surely?

I don’t think that I have looked at something as divisive as BitConnect for a long time and I have to be honest and say that there is good reason for this. Put bluntly, that reason is that people are definitely making money through this service. I have even looked at well respected review sites who are happy to recommend the service on the grounds that it is paying out, and if something is making you money it isn’t necessarily the best thing to question it.

That is a valid point however on the flip side of that coin is that this is exactly how a Ponzi scheme works. There is a focus on getting people on the bottom level to keep paying out. With their money, you pay the people who are further up the pyramid (hence the other name, pyramid scheme) who continue to glow about something because they continue to make money. Of course this isn’t to say that BitConnect is a pyramid scheme, however I do think that it would be naïve of me to overlook the similarities.

So, What Are the Pros and Cons of Bitconnect?

More than anything else there is currently one big positive to BitConnect and that is that it is paying out. Making money with something like this is the bottom line and I have known of people who have been aware they are involved in pyramid schemes but have been content as they have continued to make money.

I also have to say that if there is another positive to BitConnect it is that the returns are not just consistent, but are seemingly rather high. One reputable website that I know of have made an ROI of just under 10% making $121 off an investment of just over $1,500.

Elsewhere I have seen numbers which are much larger than this as well as claims of winning sports cars etc. for being top promoters. It is interesting to note however that these extreme cases are only really touted by the same people who are trying to get you to sign up (and earn them a commission).

As I have been writing this I think that I have covered the cons of BitConnect rather well. In fact, I would be inclined to say that I have been overly cynical with this service although I find that this is often the best way. Let us address the two biggest concerns that I have with BitConnect however. The first one is that neither I, nor anybody else online, can appear to find who is behind the service.

I can find limited companies registered in the UK however the broken English in the sales material makes it seem more likely that this is a foreign run operation. This is unfortunately all speculative however and this helps to highlight how much of a problem this actually is.

This brings me onto the next big problem with BitConnect which is the lack of tangible assets. I know that a Bitcoin is a none tangible asset, as is an BitConnect coin. On paper, there should be no difference between the two in so much as both exist online and only have a value that is ascribed to it by those who are using it as an investment platform.

There is one key difference however and it is a biggie. With Bitcoin I can go online and find hundreds of reputable exchanges. I can see millions of people all of who express an interest in the currency.

Whilst I don’t think the bubble will last forever, Bitcoins remain an asset of interest for a very wide collective. With BitConnect coins however, the only people that are interested in them are those who are currently within the fold. Despite this, I have traded an asset that has “real world” value for these coins.

This has a twofold effect on the potential future value of your BitConnect coins. First of all, if interest from the community dies out, then there is no wider interest and your assets could be rendered valueless. More concerningly is that the unknown figures behind BitConnect could choose to pull the plug on the whole operation and disappear into the sunset. This means that again, your assets have no value.

Conclusion on BitConnect

There are a lot of reasons that I wouldn’t invest in BitConnect. More than I care to count if I am completely honest, however I will none the less look to cover them here. To start with, the whole concept of BitConnect is fatally flawed if you are an investor. The bottom line of what you are doing is trading an asset for a product which only has value within the context of BitConnect. This means that if BitConnect turns out to be as questionable as it appears, you may well be left with a currency which is entirely valueless.

The other thing for me is that your assets are tied up in BitConnect essentially until they say that you can cash them out. Were you to invest a single bitcoin into BitConnect, that remains in the wallet of the unknown creators until a certain time has elapsed. Yes, you have had returns on that investment and when the time comes to pull it out, you might have had generous returns, however it doesn’t alter the fact that if your circumstances change, you are stuck.

I will try not to tread old ground too much here, but the lack of genuine information surrounding BitConnect is very concerning. As I have touched upon, everything that I have seen that is positive comes from those who are embroiled in the service. Whilst this can look good at first glance, I am yet to see any long term evidence that I would say is truly conclusive that BitConnect is genuine.

This is in direct contrast to being able to see the whole set up from the outside and identify that it is on inherently shaky grounds. Whenever I look at something like BitConnect I like to look at the product that you are buying. Putting aside the interest and returns for a minute, what you are buying with BitConnect is nothing, and it is an expensive nothing at that. You are then going to pay for this nothing to nobody using a method of payment that whilst not untraceable, is difficult to follow.

My personal recommendation for BitConnect is to avoid it like the plague. For a minute, let us remove the crypto currency factor and play BitConnect’s pitch out as an “on the street” encounter.

A complete stranger approaches you and asks you for £100 cash, for which they will give you £125 in Monopoly money. They tell you that there are plenty of other people in the area who want to buy that Monopoly money for real money. Once you have it, you can go and find one of those people and trade them your £125 Monopoly money and make yourself a tidy profit. Life is good.

But if you ask yourself honestly, would you have let it get that far? Or would you have stopped this at the point where somebody asked for your real money in exchange for Monopoly money. I don’t see BitConnect as being any different.

I will be balanced here however and say that this is a big operation and I think that if BitConnect is going to collapse under its own weight, this will be some time off. With that in mind, if you want to get in on the ground level and start making some money whilst it is still there to be had, then you should probably try and get involved with BitConnect sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, there is enough evidence to say that at the moment it is paying out something. Again, I wouldn’t like to speculate too much on the long term future, but people are definitely making money, and it is easy money at that.

Final Thoughts on BitConnect

BitConnect isn’t for me. I have looked at enough products along similar lines to this that are no longer about. Despite this, I can’t help but think that BitConnect is just an incredibly high risk investment. You may well take a decent amount of money out of it and that potential is there for now. Perhaps to best way that I can close this rather lengthy look at BitConnect is by comparing it to the Schrodinger’s Cat though experiment.

Just as the cat is both alive and dead until we open the box and check, BitConnect retains a sense of being both legitimate and a potential dishonest schemeby paying out and also hiding a lot of information.

Nobody in their right minds would invest in Bitcoin at this juncture. The boat has sailed, although I wouldn’t have minded to have bought a few hundred pounds worth back 10 years ago when it was being talked about.

Now though it is just not worth the risk and I suspect the only way is down…..

Like you say, back in 2007/8 it would have been a viable option, but hindsight is wonderful and not many people expected Bitcoin to take off, or has it?

It all looks like an illusion to me 😉

People who invest at today’s prices must want their heads feeling because the risk is massive now I think.

I do remember looking into the ‘mining’ of Bitcoin a good few years ago, there was software going around at the time where it was supposedly going to mine the Bitcoin for you if you left the software running on your PC 24/7, and it looks like it has worked for a few people.

I was reading last week in fact, about the chap who had £79million worth of Bitcoin on his pc that he send to his local tip, and is now offering his local council 10% if they can find the laptop he lost.

As if, right.

But it just goes to show that nobody really placed that much importance of the currency until the last few years, and now the value is just too high to risk an investment.

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Hi Ben
I have just completed my first affiliate program (quite excited to be fair!!) Thanks again for all your time,effort and advice.You are one of the good guys on a web of scepticism due to the amount of shysters, fly by nights and endless amounts of poor products. Keep it up buddy.
Many thanks
James

James

Hi Dan, just to say that your review site is easiest one of the ones that I check out daily, always straight forward talk and content. Love it!

Chris Gyle

Thanks for answering my emails over the weekend, I wasn't sure whether to join or not, but your email helped. Cheers Dan

Malcolm

I haven’t even purchased anything through you yet but I can tell that you are full of integrity and have a no bullshit approach!
It’s what this industry really lacks, but I am glad I found your site and will be buying and testing the top recommended earners you have!
If I can make 2-3K per month that will help me out massively!
But thanks again bro – keep up the great work, we do appreciate it and appreciate you!
Peace,
Mr. Wise

Mr Wise

I have to say there are very few Internet marketers that take the time you do to answer peoples ‘stuff’ so thank you for that…

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